Lost in Time
by xwickedxspiritx
Summary: Valerie Gray is ready for a relaxing, boring summer. But when Dan Phantom escapes and Valerie falls into Danny's nightmarish alternate future, how is the Red Huntress supposed to fight something that's inevitable?
1. Ready

Disclaimer: Don't own Danny Phantom or any related characters and such forth--that belongs to Butch Hartman and others.

Thanks for clicking, please R&R! :)

* * *

You know what normal kids do on a Saturday morning in the middle of summer?

_Sleep._

But Valerie Gray was doing anything but. Not that she had expected to when her grinning boss had joyfully declared that he was promoting her to the morning shift for the summer. So here she was in the Nasty Burger, bright and early, joyfully ready to scratch out the eyes of the next person who came near her.

Trying not to think of her comfy, warm bed at home, Valerie sighed as the next customer came, an overweight kid in a blue shirt who obviously hadn't gotten the memo about "sleep first, annoy irate workers later".

Valerie put her chin on her hand and gazed at him uninterestedly as his eyes scanned the menu and he started to sweat. She rolled her eyes. _Come on, _she urged silently, _it's not like this is the C.A.T. or something!_

"Uh…I think I'll have Double Meaty Surprise…no, no…or maybe a Mini Meaty…or should I have a—"

Valerie was practically stabbing the keys with her fingers. Clenching her hands, she tilted her head to the side and gave him a nice, totally forced smile. "Will that be all, _sir?_"

The kid looked puzzled. "But I haven't even—"

"_Will that be all?_"

The kid gulped. "I'll just have a traditional Nasty Burger, thanks."

Valerie thrust the greasy bag toward his chest. "Enjoy," she muttered as he scrambled off to a table. Running a hand through her long brown hair, Valerie sighed for about the fiftieth time that day—and she wasn't even fully awake yet.

Truth was, she thought that this summer, she'd finally have time to take a break. With her job at the Nasty Burger and her—erm, _other _job, she'd been almost pushed to the limit with also having to juggle school on her plate. If she could, she'd just quit this stupid job. For once, she'd like to go to Nasty Burger on the _other _side of the counter; ignoring the fact that after being in the fast food restauraunt's kitchen, she probably wouldn't be able to digest their food anytime soon.

Well, at least it was a whole lot better than being "Nasty Nat".

And it wasn't like she could quit her other job, or school. If she didn't protect Amity Park, who would?

_Phantom would,_ the part of her mind that just wanted to go back to bed insisted. Valerie's green eyes flashed at the mention of the arrogant ghost "protector".

Valerie snorted. Yeah, right. She was the only _real _protector the people of Amity Park could count on, if they could actually see past their own—

"Uh, Val? Earth to Val?"

Valerie snapped out of her thoughts, glaring at whoever was interrupting her. She only blinked when she saw Tucker Foley, Danny's friend, snapping his fingers in front of her face. Valerie pushed them out of the way, scowling.

"Foley. What do you want?"

He gave her a look of mock hurt. "Aw, come on, Val. Can you pretend for at least one day that you don't hate my guts?"

Valerie blinked, giving him an odd look. "What are you _talking _about? You're kind of the one who hates _me, _remember?" "Tucker" just shrugged.

"Whatever you say. Mind if I order, or are you gonna keep spacing out like that?" Valerie let out an exasperated sigh.

"What do you want?"

"You forgot the 'sir' part." Tucker was smirking.

"Don't push your limits, Foley," Valerie growled. "Now, what do you—" Startled, she cut off, looking at her red-and-black watch, which was beeping madly. _It's close, _she thought, eyes flitting around, searching for whatever ghost had decided to bother her this time. Tucker just raised an eyebrow at her antics.

"Hey, Amy," Valerie called out to the girl beside her who was tending the next register. "Mind if you take my register real quick? It's an emergency."

Amy's eyes widened, and she looked around like she was trying to grab an excuse, like it would just be floating out in the air. "B-but…my register _and _yours? I don't think I can—"

"Thanks, see you later!" Valerie called as she flew out the door. She'd make it up to Amy later—right now, the Red Huntress was needed.

A red glow covered her body, electricity sparkling as she transformed from normal Valerie Gray to the significantly un-normal Red Huntress. Her hover board crackled into existence and she jumped on it, rising into the air, eyes searching the sky for whatever idiot ghost was around.

"Hey, Va—I mean, _Red Huntress_." Valerie spun around to see the famed "Danny Phantom", that arrogant, ever-present smirk on his face. She would've wondered what _Va _was supposed to mean if she cared what that idiot spook said in the first place.

"Phantom," she growled, seething. _Him?_ Now? She didn't know, didn't care if ghosts slept. "Isn't it a little early to be wreaking havoc?" She could've swear she saw his shoulders slump, but it was probably just an act. A ploy to fool her into thinking he was all "innocent", but darn her if she would be fooled like all the others in Amity Park.

"But I'm not _doing _anything," he protested, hands flying into the air. "I was just flying. I didn't ask you to come up here and declare war on me—" A blast hit him in the arm, scalding the parts of his jumpsuit that it touched. Jumping a foot into the air, Phantom yelped. "Hey! What was that for?"

Valerie smirked. Blowing away the smoke from her shot, she snarled, "Drop the innocent act, ghost. I know exactly what you're doing. You'll act all defenseless and that crap, then you'll turn around and blast me in the back. You're just trying to get rid of me, the only person in Amity Park who can stop you from taking over—" Phantom interrupted, laughing.

"Yeah, that's right," he said, and she could practically see the sarcasm dripping off his tongue as she stood there, arms crossed over her chest. "_I'm _trying to get rid of _you._"

"Fine, act like it's all a great joke now," she replied, green eyes cold and narrowed. _But I'll have the last laugh, _she swore to herself. "But I know who you _really _are, Phantom."

The spook froze. "Y-you do?" Valerie tilted her head, confused for a moment. Was that ghost actually…frightened?

_Well, he should be, _the rational part of her said, and she dismissed her earlier thought. He was probably just mocking her. "Yeah, I do," she said, charging up her gun again. "You're just a ghost. A dirty, malevolent, stealing, _lying _ghost. And I might not know what you're plan is, but when you reveal your _true _nature to Amity Park," she paused for a moment, leveling her gun at his head for extra effect, "I'll be ready."

Phantom actually looked stunned. "Uh, look," he said, "I know what you think about me—believe me, _I know_—but I would never, ever—" He stopped for a minute, cocking his head, looking confused. "Is that a…ghost portal behind you?"

Valerie's neck whipped around so fast that for a second she was left hissing in pain, rubbing it. Then she took in the strange abnormality behind her—a circular shaped mass of swirling green energy. She reached out a hand to touch it, mesmerized by the swirls of green, the—

A white gloved hand grabbed her wrist before she could reach it. "I'm not so sure that's a good idea," he said quickly, guiding her hand away from it. Valerie just blinked before yanking her hand away stubbornly.

"Does that lead to that, uh, zone we went to before?" she asked hesitantly. Valerie remembered all too well their "adventure" back in the school year, when some weird metallic ghost hunter called "Skulker" had kidnapped and cuffed her and Phantom, trying to hunt them down in his universe like she was some sort of…_animal_. She shuddered at the thought of it.

"Yeah, it should," he answered, giving it odd looks. "But I don't know why there would be—"

Suddenly, a blue hand shot out of the portal, making Valerie utter a short, startled scream before charging into action like the ghost hunter she was. But it wasn't for her—the hand gripped on Phantom's, who looked just as terrified as she felt.

Before she or Phantom could move, the hand yanked a yelping Phantom into that—that _place. _Valerie froze in the air for a minute before yelling, "Phantom! I—you come back here! I'm not finished with you yet!" Furiously, she tried to peer through the portal, not seeing anything beyond the green haze.

"Where are y—" Valerie bit back a scream as she leaned too far, floundering before tumbling head over heels into the…"Ghost" Zone?

* * *

You know what normal kids do on Saturday mornings in the middle of summer?

_Not _fall into freak portals that lead into an alternate dimension.

Valerie groaned, holding her head as she got another wave of pain. Standing up on wobbly knees, she wondered, _Where the heck am I _now?

Glancing at her broken and ruined hover board, Valerie looked at the strange place she had fallen in the middle of. The portal had closed, so she might as well.

As far as she could tell, she was indeed in the Ghost Zone, probably in some strange ghost's lair. The whole place was a kind of metallic blue color, and it looked more like a tower than a lair. Valerie raised an eyebrow. The hunter ghost's lair looked nothing like this--his was a large island and this was--well, whatever it was. Bells and mechanical gears were hanging from the ceiling—some of the bells were chiming, and all the gears were turning. Some were creaking along, others were turning like normal, others so fast that Valerie thought they were going to be flung off.

And she could hear the ticking. The ticking coming from the hundreds of clocks hung on the walls, hands rotating in turn. The clocks didn't even say the same time! Shaking her head, Valerie looked at her own watch. At least she could count on her own gear.

Valerie stopped in her tracks. The time was frozen at 7:12 AM, the seconds part at 53. Valerie tapped the surface with her fingernail, frowning. That was…impossible. This was her own ghost hunting gear! It couldn't just freeze! _I mean, it doesn't just run out of batteries…if it even has batteries…never really wondered how this stuff actually _worked. Valerie stood dumbfounded.

Did that mean her other gear had stopped working as well? Valerie lifted up her arm, accessing the searcher and typing in _Danny Phantom. _She'd already plugged in his ecto signature, so it would be easy to find him.

Surprisingly, it worked, locating him just a few feet away. A purple curtain blocked her view, and Valerie crept toward it, locking her eyes on it.

Just as she reached out a hand to yank it outside, she yanked it back as she heard voices echoing behind it.

"W-what? What do you _mean _he's back?! I thought you said he was gone for good!" a panicked voice yelled…Phantom?

"I never actually said that." Now it was a different voice, much calmer. Valerie couldn't recognize it.

"How could you let him escape!" Instead of a question, this turned into another yell, and Valerie could almost feel the anger directed at this other, unknown figure. "What if he—"

"Relax, Danny," the other one interrupted, and Valerie wrinkled her nose. Obviously, these two ghosts—it had to be a ghost—were on swell terms with each other. "When did I say that is was _your _world that he escaped to?"

Valerie could hear the sharp intake of breath even where she was standing. "You…you mean he _isn't _in Amity Park?" Phantom laughed, and Valerie wondered—definitely not for the first time—if Phantom was all that sane. _Of course he isn't_, she reasoned, snorting. _He's a ghost. When have they ever been?_ "Then where is he?"

"In his own world. Your alternate future. But—" The voice cut off, then said, "Someone's here. Quiet."

Valerie shook her head, snapping her mind out of that strange conversation. Grabbing the fabric of the curtain in her fist, she yanked it to the side. "You can't hide forever, Phan…" She trailed off. All she could see was an empty corner, and, well, more clocks.

Sighing, Valerie leaned against the wall. As much as she might hate to admit it, Phantom was kind of her best bet to getting out of here. This was the Ghost Zone, and he _was _a ghost. But with him nowhere to be found, it looked like this was up to her. As usual.

Trying to think of a way to fix her hover board, Valerie turned her head to a side. "Hey, what's this?" she mused, standing up straight and walking over to some necklace-type things hanging on hooks. Were they some weird type of medallions? There was a C intertwined with a W, she noticed. What was that supposed to mean?

Looking back over the clocks, she thought dryly, _Well, it probably has something to do with clocks._

Honestly, it looked like some really high-tech ghost tech. Raising an eyebrow, Valerie lifted it off the hook. Huh. Maybe this could somehow plug into her hover board and fix it or something? She shrugged. Well, she had fought a technology ghost before. Who knew?

"_You think this is a challenge? This is a joke!..."_

Valerie jumped about a foot into the air, a small ecto-gun materializing into her hand as she dropped the medallion and looked for whatever had said that.

"_How have you eluded me all this time? Hiding under rocks?..."_

There it was again! Valerie clutched the handle. That same hollow, chilling laugh, and the spine-chilling voice that went along with it. Cautiously picking up the medallion and slinging it over her neck--finally, she'd have some ghost tech to experiment with--Valerie walked forward, toward where she could hear distant laughter and firing. And…were those flat-screen TVs?

"Weird," she acknowledged. She honestly doubted that ghosts had flat-screen TVs, but that was what it looked like, except in circular-shape. But it was what was _on _the screen that captivated her.

The ghost hunter froze at the sight of all the destruction. Crumbled buildings, ruined sidewalks, gray skies, rusting cars…it was a wasteland, one that looked like someone had dropped a bomb on it. That couldn't be _her _city. Not Amity Park. But she could see a broken and cracked sign saying FENTON WORKS laying in the middle of the rubble.

"No way," Valerie breathed, extending a hand to touch it, make sure it was real. But this couldn't be real. It had to be just some dirty ghost trick--she'd just seen Amity Park, the birds chirping and the little kids running and playing. She'd just been fighting Phantom--well, kind of--in the _blue_ sky. Just an average day. _It's completely safe, _Valerie told herself, not wanting to see the horrors that this monitor was trying to show her.

Raising up her ecto-gun, Valerie cocked it toward the screen. Well, there was one sure way to make it go away for good. Slipping her finger over the trigger she pressed and--

_"Clockwork! Come out and find me, you coward. Aren't you going to try to stuff me into that old thermos again?"_

Valerie's hand jerked and the gun misfired, the energy ray ricocheting off the walls before dissolving into the air. Valerie just blinked as she stared at the ghost whose voice had lured her over to the screen. He seemed like the only being, living or otherwise, for miles. With a pasty white face and white flaming hair, complete with a white-and-black jumpsuit, he kind of reminded her of...

Then her eyes were drawn to that all too familiar symbol, a P inside of a D.

_Danny Phantom._

"I knew it," Valerie whispered. "I knew it!" Her voice raised now, and Valerie glared hard at the figure. The mystery ghost talking to Phantom had said _future._ So this was Amity Park's future.

_I knew we shouldn't have trusted him, _Valerie thought, eyes locked on the figure who was laughing at his destruction. Who cared what the rest of that stupid conversation meant? Here was all the truth she needed to see, right here. She was _right._ Like she'd said, she was ready for anything he could throw at her. And if the future could be shown on these life-size crystal balls, well, who said it couldn't be changed? And she _would_ change it.

Valerie had never understood why people hadn't looked passed the emerald eyes and cocky smile of the ghost boy to the evil that lurked just within. Not that she wanted to sound like some guy from Star Wars, of course. Valerie had seen the articles, the Amity Park news broadcasts, the magazines--she knew that right now, especially after the ghost invasion of Pariah Dark, everybody was calling Phantom a "hero". But ghosts didn't know the meaning of hero, or helping humans. And once Valerie told them of _this, _no one would be calling Danny Phantom a hero anymore.

Because as a ghost, Phantom was her enemy. Amity Park's enemy.

Valerie grinned. Phantom _should _be scared. Because she was Valerie Gray, Amity Park's Red Huntress, and now she had a mission. Well, actually, she had _always _had it, but now she had a her proof.

"Look out, _Danny Phantom_," Valerie said, like he might actually be listening, "'cause your future's about to change."

Stepping forward to touch the image screen, silently thanking fate for giving her this proof, Valerie stopped dead as she saw her hand not scrape the screen's surface, but go _through _it.

Giving a started yell, Valerie tried to yank her hand back, but all she felt was a fierce tug that nearly pulled her whole arm into it.

"I—this can't—let GO!" Valerie yelled, stopping the scream that was trying to push her way out of her throat. Desperately, Valerie cocked her gun again and fired, hoping that whatever was trying to pull her into this nightmare was getting it full in the face. The ray, a clear shot, just slipped through like her hand, though, and Valerie felt another vicious tug.

"HELP!" She doubted anyone who she actually _wanted_ to hear her would hear. Not that she had much choice--the Ghost Zone was, as it label implied, probably full of ghosts who would rather tear her limb from limb then help her. Or they might just push her in. But she had to try. "Anyone? Come ON!"

Valerie's only reply was the endless ticking and haunting laughter in the distance.

One more tug, and Valerie's last clichéd, lamented thought she had as she slipped through and rushed toward very solid, real ground was:

_I should have stayed in bed._

* * *

A figure made his way out of the shadows, a purple cloak drawn over his bluish face, hiding his red eyes and scar. His tower was now empty, the viewers clouded with grey mist. Looking at his Time Staff, Clockwork pushed a button and smiled.

"Everything is as it should be."

* * *

Thanks for reading the first chapter, and I hope you enjoyed. Any comments, praise, criticism, flames, etc.--please review! Any feedback is welcome. I'd especially like to hear if you have any ideas on if the characters were OOC or not, and if you think the story is running smoothly. Thanks again! :)


	2. Amity Park: The Future

Sorry it took a while--I have about ten times more stuff to do this summer than the last one. x_x

Kudos to past reviewers. :D Thanks for clicking, hope you enjoy! R&R! :)

* * *

"No wonder I have no social life," Valerie muttered, concentrating hard as she pushed herself off the ground to stand on wobbly knees. Back in normal form, she could see the cuts in her hands from the shattered windshield of the crashed helicopter she had, fortunately, landed a little ways away from.

Wincing as they started to bleed, Valerie sighed. She seriously doubted that she would find any Band-Aids just lying around, or any antiseptic wipes. Maybe she could salvage something from one of these abandoned houses—it didn't look like this had happened too long ago. More of a sudden thing.

But Valerie shuddered at that thought as she looked at the houses with the roofs completely gone, the brick walls left standing in the process of crumbling. These had been people's homes, and now they were just…gone.

And there were more than one type of ghosts.

Finally, she looked around at whatever place she had fallen into this time. "Don't tell me I'm in…" Valerie started to mutter, but she didn't feel like continuing when she was hit with the obvious truth—she'd fallen into the future, according to the mystery ghost talking to Phantom. So this was Phantom's future.

And obviously, Valerie's too, if she didn't do something about it.

It'd looked like one thing on the monitors, but now…the crashed helicopter only added to the bleak sight before her. This was like a war zone, but it didn't seem like Amity Park did much fighting back.

"Where are all the people, anyway?" Valerie asked, thinking out loud to distract herself from the silence. Walking forward, she cringed as she stepped on a broken piece of china, breaking it into even more tiny pieces. "They couldn't all be…" She trailed off, not able to summon the wordinto the air.

_Could they?_ But Amity Park was pretty huge as she remembered it. People couldn't just disappear off the face of the earth. And if anyone was dead, she would have at least seem some…uh, remains.

Valerie fought down the taste of bile rising in her throat. _Phantom _had done this, had summoned enough power to wipe out an entire _city_. Somewhere deep down, she'd always expected this from the teenage spook—Valerie had definitely told the ghost himself what she thought enough.

She guessed that she should be happy, being the first one to see the truth. Being the one who could actually _do _something about it, and prove she wasn't just some crazy, obsessive ghost hunter. But all Valerie really felt was a hollow feeling in the pit of her stomach as she saw what her "victory" was.

Kneeling, Valerie picked up the broken china, trying to avoid cutting herself again as she lifted the pieces up to the light. It was actually really pretty—white, with silver lining, threaded with intertwined roses. She smiled. At least the owner of this could be happy that some pieces of their home survived.

Valerie felt a sudden wind slap against her face. Putting the china down softly and quickly, she frowned, looking up. Where had _that _come from?

The wind just picked up again, whipping her long hair around her face. Valerie scowled. Oh, great. A storm was probably coming.

But looking up, she only saw a few clouds dotting the grey sky, just seeming fluffy and white. Then where had the—

Valerie's thoughts were immediately cut off as she felt something hard and fast slamming into her side, knocking her spinning. She swore she could see stars in her eyes as a purple streak flew up past her and across the sky, almost too fast to see.

Valerie thought she could almost make out a solid black figure masked in the purple haze as she immediately changed, the technology in her visor kicking in, letting her zoom onto the purple streak. _It has to be a ghost_, she thought, trying to use her visor technology to estimate the ghost's power levels. Maybe now she could finally get some answers.

Ignoring the slowness, Valerie scowled as she waited for the hover board to kick in. Never too late for some ghost hunting. You know, if her stuff would actually work. "What, is _nothing _working right today?" she grumbled. "Those screens must have damaged my—" Valerie froze at the word _damaged._

_Dangit! _Valerie growled as the ghost disappeared from sight. Her board was still broken in that stupid ghost's layer, and here she was, stranded. Looked like it was just her and her weapons today.

Accessing her searcher again, Valerie tried to get it to locate a ghost that neither she or it knew. Fingers typing fast, Valerie swept her gaze over the buildings. If she could find a building climb high enough, not only would she be able to see that strange ghost, but the rest of the city, too.

Maybe there was some sort of portal that could lead her back home around here.

Though Valerie really doubted she could get "lucky" twice.

Running through the streets, Valerie twisted her head from side to side. "You think Phantom could have left at least _one _building standing," she muttered, then slowed, realizing the real truth in the idea. He didn't even leave one.

_This is why I fight ghosts_, Valerie thought, grimacing as she resumed speed, twisting through main streets and alleys and sidewalks._ It's never just about destroying one place, one person, one future. For ghosts, it's about reducing everything to dust. Making sure nothing's left. Making sure that no matter what, every part of everything feels exactly what you're doing right down to the bone._

Valerie shuddered. But not Amity Park. Never Amity Park.

She'd make sure about that.

* * *

Finally she found a building high enough, with enough chips and cracks in the bricks or whatever it was made of once upon a time to make it an easy climb.

"Well, eas_ier_," Valerie added onto her thoughts, ignoring everything else that was trying to sneak into her brain as she concentrated on her hands finding the minuscule holds. Scrambling over the top, she looked out over her city…or what was left of it.

Seeing the full image, Valerie couldn't help but wonder what her future self had done to try to stop this, if she even had a future self now. Funny, but she couldn't really picture herself however many years from where she was now. Valerie Gray, Red Huntress, a teen ghost fighter not a teen anymore…like pieces of a puzzle missing from a puzzle so incomplete you couldn't even imagine the rest of it.

Strangely, what she could see as she gave the view a full 360 was strange windmill-like machines interspaced around the borders of Amity Park. Squinting, she could just make them out. They looked like somebody had dropped a bomb on them, true, but she could still make out the blades. After a moment, Valerie shrugged. It _was _the future. They'd probably just converted to wind energy or something.

But no purple streak. Sighing, she sat on the ledge. Well, no wonder. Valerie wasn't naive enough to think that she, a human girl, could outrun a superfast ghost that was _flying_.

Heck, it was probably half way to China by now.

Which begged the question: Valerie had seen Amity Park. What about the rest of the world?

"Probably not a walk in the park," she mused grimly, her head hurting from all the thoughts buzzing around it. With the Red Huntress apparently gone and Phantom having—predictably—betraying them all, the ghosts were probably running rampant wherever they chose.

Valerie suddenly heard a charging sound in her ears, kind of like a computer or other appliance booting up. She grinned. Maybe her suit had another hover board ready for her.

But no. That was an outside sound. And what kind of tech could be left _here?_ "What's going on here—" Valerie started, eyes narrowing as she looked around.

Just in time to see a red beam shot at her, finding its target in the middle of her chest.

* * *

Valerie stumbled back, slipping over the edge and falling backwards, tumbling to the ground. Valerie let out an _oof_, the wind knocked out of her. Groaning as she felt a not-so-comfortable pain in her left ankle, Valerie coughed up dust from her face-plant.

"Where did that _come _from?" she asked the ground angrily, pounding the dirt with her fist. First purple streaks through the sky, now invisible attackers. What next, pits of lava or something?

Well, she guessed that invisible could mean pretty much any ghost. But if Valerie had learned _anything _from her days of ghosthunting, it was that ghosts had pretty big egos. They'd want her to know exactly who she'd been blasted by.

Standing up and balancing her weight on her right foot, Valerie swept her eyes over what place she'd landed now. This place looked even more desolate—not even one building was left half-standing, metal structures bent and crooked, pointing up toward the sky. Forcing her eyes away, Valerie sighed.

"And they said 'no evil can happen to a good man'," she muttered. _And it's not like this was any tea party, _Valerie added in her thoughts.

Looking over her shoulder to make sure nothing like that red beam happened again, she started to walk forward, nerves tingling. If she didn't find a way home soon, who knew what—

"OW!" Valerie yelled as she fell back, head smarting from walking straight into a stone…something.

She glared up, wondering how something so solid was still standing. Then her eyes widened as she grabbed onto the chips in the stone statue, using them as handholds to hoist herself up.

"That can't be…" Valerie stopped, throat dry as she licked her lips.

It was Mr. Fenton, Danny's dad. She'd seen him once or twice in the Nasty Burger, checking up on his son at a booth. Valerie had always watched them kind of wistfully; with the installment of her dad's job by the very generous new owner, Vlad Masters—nevermind the low payroll—he'd never had the chance to check up on her at her own job.

But watching these meetings between father and son usually ending with Danny trying to crawl under the table to avoid the rest of their classmates' laughter, maybe Valerie was kind of lucky.

Snapping out of her memories, Valerie looked back. There was the likeness of Mr. Fenton engraved in stone, standing larger-than-life over his wife and Jazz, Danny's sister. Then there was Sam and Tucker right beside them, their usual confident, happy smiles on.

"Gone…but not forgotten?" Valerie shook her head, then looked around, wondering if there were any _more _statues.

"Mr. Lancer," she intoned. "Gone." Valerie felt numb. She lifted up a hand, tracing the letters with her fingers.

Fourteen. She'd just _seen_ Tucker at the Nasty Burger, and the rest of them somewhere around town. They'd had to have been fourteen when they…Valerie swallowed, letting the numb feeling take over the rest of her body.

Amity Park hadn't been like this for that long. She could see that. So that meant something else happened. Valerie could see the ruined Nasty Burger behind it—maybe Phantom had some grudge against fast food?—the sign hanging from the pole by just a thread.

Suddenly, Valerie remembered Tucker telling her about Danny's parents being ghosthunters. Her hands dropped. _Ghosthunters?_

Amity Park hadn't been like this for too much time. But who's to say its destroyer hadn't been? And, thinking like a ghost, any viable threat would have to go. Sam, Tucker, and Jazz were probably just in the way.

Gone, but not forgotten.

Anger broke through the numb feeling, coursing through her body. Valerie looked down, clenching her fists, ignoring the pain. This wasn't a game anymore--it had never been a game. Now she saw just how real it was.

Shutting her eyes, she tried to reason past this—this was the future. It had obviously been a while since that, if they had time to make the statue and everything.

So the key was to concentrate on the thing that mattered—stopping Phantom and his future. That was what mattered.

Then everything could fall into place. Normal again.

Valerie turned away from the statue. "I'll save you guys," she whispered. "I promise. And I'll save Amity Park." Her eyes hardened. "And I won't let any Phantom stop me."

Starting to walk away, Valerie suddenly realized with a jolt that a fourth member was missing from the Fenton family. She pun around, a tiny smile reaching her face despite the grim surroundings. "Either they ran out of alabaster," she reasoned, trying to keep down the bubble of happiness at the one piece of good news she'd heard all day, "or Danny made it out al--"

"Hey! Hey, anybody out here?" A voice echoed out from past the ruins and Valerie froze. Someone was _here?_ And looking for somebody_? _She saw something red flash around a corner before disappearing out of sight.

Wasn't it, like, the number one rule of time-traveling to not be seen? Valerie was pretty sure of it. Especially if the Valerie in question might not be all that around anymore…

Seeing the flash of red again, Valerie darted into the closest shelter she could find, the Nasty Burger, changing back into human to try to blend into the bland colors. She saw a tiny spot between the stove and counter and dove behind it.

"Hey, kid!"

Valerie tried to quiet her erratic breathing and the the rapid beating of her heart. Who _was _this person, this idiot out in broad daylight, pretty much broadcasting a signal to every bloodthirsty ghost out there?

"Look, I'm not going to hurt you," the person whispered. _Definitely female, _Valerie realized. And...somehow...familiar? "I know you're scared, and probably hurt. But it's okay. I can take you to the safety shelters."

Valerie stiffened, debating whether to reveal herself and change back into ghosthunter mode. How did she know this wasn't actually a ghost, trying to lure lost kids to it?

"Plus, it's not safe in here." The voice paused. "After the explosion ten years ago, we've never really touched this place. We don't know how stable it is." _Explosion?_

One last whisper. "I can help." And suddenly the person crouched down in front of Valerie, and she could see clearly.

"Oh my God," they both whispered, two identical green eyes mirroring each other's shock.

* * *

Had a little trouble with editing this chapter--like something was wrong, I just couldn't figure out what. I hope I fixed any problems and that it was a good follow-up to last chapter. Reviews always appreciated--thanks for reading! :D


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